I am delighted to welcome readers to this themed issue of the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, where the focus lies with leadership and management. Given the extent and range of material written about both of these topics, along with the plethora of modules and courses geared towards imbuing positive achievement in these respects, you may be thinking – justifiably – that tackling these areas represents a high ambition for a single issue. I hope that you will read on and agree that the authors here have put their shoulders to the wheel with great energy and have offered a mass of thought-provoking insights.